Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Labatut, Julie
• Aggeri, Franck
• Astruc, Jean-Michel
• Bibe, Bernard
• Girard, Nathalie
• Gherardi, Silvia

Titel

The Active Role of Instruments in Articulating Knowing and Knowledge: The Case of Animal Qualification Practices in Breeding Organisations

Ist Teil von

• The learning organization, 2009-01, Vol.16 (5), p.371-385

Ort / Verlag

Bradford: Emerald

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

ERIC

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of instruments defined as artefacts, rules, models or norms, in the articulation between knowing-in-practice and knowledge, in learning processes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on a distributed, knowledge-intensive and instrumented activity at the core of any collective action: qualification. The particular case of breeding activities in the livestock sector has been studied, where collective practices of animal qualification for collective breeding have been studied. Qualitative data stemming from in-depth interviews and observation of daily practices have been analysed, combining practice-based approaches on knowing processes and science philosophers' theories on the use of instruments during action. Findings: The study of instruments used in daily practices allows us to go beyond the dichotomy between opposite types of knowledge, i.e. scientific knowledge seen as a stock, and sensible knowledge seen as purely tacit and equated to non-instrumented practices. Instruments are not merely mediators in learning processes; they also take an active part in shaping and activating knowledge and learning processes. Research limitations/implications: Further research is needed on the designing of reflexive instrumentation, which takes knowing and knowledge articulation into account better. Practical implications: Using instruments as a key concept to analyse knowing-in-practice processes has both methodological and managerial implications for identifying those instruments that favour learning processes. Originality/value: This paper complements more classical practice-based approaches by proposing a new perspective on instruments in learning processes, which is particularly relevant to the study of pluralistic organisations where power is diffuse.